I arrived bright and early at Eleanor Tinsley Park on Saturday morning, grabbed some tasty breakfast burritos that management was kind enough to procure for us, and hit the box office. I sold tickets from twelve to five and then found myself on what I would later realize was the high roller section. Now, for those of you who weren't lucky enough to sneak up there, the high roller section is this bad ass little platform right on the left side of the main stage where you're only about fifty feet away from whatever band is playing. I stayed there for the rest of the night and got some pretty good pictures of Martin, Medeski & Wood, Ra Ra Riot, and Girl Talk. Girl Talk was amazing live and he let about a crowd of people jump up on stage with him and dance so of course I obliged.
Day two started for me with some disappointment as I missed one of my favorite bands: Lymbyc Systym. Uh Huh Her was on when I got there and frankly don't care too much for them so I paid the Camel tent a visit. I went in looking for a free pack of good ol' Camel filters but also left with like eight cans of this nasty dip stuff called Snus (pronounced snoos). When they asked me whether I wanted any I lied and said I already tried it before and it made me sick. Without any explanation he sort of gently pushed two large cardboard boxes of Snus at me which I decided to take just so he'd give me my camels and leave me alone. It's kind of disturbing they give out that much merch hoping to get us hooked but cest la vie I guess, it's always been like that with tobacco stuff. After trying to give the Snus to about four people I saw smoking I dumped the unwanted Snus into the nearest trashcan. I then visited the 29-95 stage to watch Somosuno which is another project of Fernando from excellent Houston punk band The Takes. Somosuno reminded me of Captain Beefheart with different vocals and the addition of horns.
During their set it started raining cats and dogs. It was the heaviest downpour I've ever been in and had to seek refuge in the HQ and hide my phone and camera. It was like a mini Woodstock! People were bathing themselves in the runoff coming from overflowing sewage pipes and rolling around in the mud. I think I completely destroyed a pair of white Vans I bought only a week ago but given the experience was totally worth it. Once the rain let up, around five o clock, I parked myself in front of the stage to watch Stars and didn't move from that spot all night. Stars were simply amazing; they played some very vocal driven indie rock with a slightly electronic feel to it. Extremely professional, they played a great set and had the same tight sound to them that they have in the studio. They'll be coming out with a new album on the 22nd called 5 Ghosts, so watch out for that. Next was Bun B and Slim Thug which was a little hard for me since I was getting pretty dehydrated but there was no way I was gonna miss half of UGK just because I was thirsty. Please. The set was well worth staying for and on top of that I was able to secure my spot for the Flaming Lips. There was a commencement ceremony before the Lips went on, to welcome them back after ten years of being absent from our fare city of Houston. Wayne, to my relief, told us that there was nothing wrong with Houston and that there was no particular reason they were gone for so long; there was "no bad drug deal or anything" were his words. The visuals for the Lips were surreal and included giant rotoscoped animation of a naked dancing woman, confetti, giant balloons, giant hands shooting lasers, and of course Wayne's famous space bubble. The Lips played songs from Embryonic, At War with the Mystics, and Yoshimi battles the pink Robots and even a rendition of "She don't use jelly" from 1993. It was the most fun I've ever had at a show, to date. The Free Press Summer Fest was a total success this year and will only continue to get better. Regardless of who the main headliner is next year, it will be very hard to top The Flaming Lips. It might be impossible.
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